mascot/nickname
The University of Colorado has one of the more unique mascots in
all of intercollegiate athletics, a real buffalo named Ralphie.
The live buffalo mascot leads the football team out on the field both
at the start of the game and second half. It is truly one of the special
sights that exist anywhere in college or professional sports, especially
for opposing teams, who often stop in their tracks watching the massive
buffalo round the end zone and head directly at their sideline.
The buffalo first appeared in 1934, three weeks after a contest to
select an official school nickname by the Silver & Gold newspaper had
come to an end and “Buffaloes” was the winning entry. For the final
game of the ‘34 season, a group of students paid $25 to rent a buffalo
calf along with a real cowboy as his keeper. The calf was the son of
Killer, a famed bison at Trails End Ranch in Fort Collins. It took the
cowboy and four students to keep the calf under control on the
sidelines, a 7-0 win at the University of Denver on Thanksgiving Day.
Prior to 1934, CU athletic teams usually were referred to as the
“Silver and Gold,” but other nicknames teams were sometimes called
included Silver Helmets, Yellow Jackets, Hornets, Arapahoes, Big
Horns, Grizzlies and Frontiersmen. The student newspaper decided to
sponsor a national contest in the summer of 1934, with a $5 prize to go
to the author of the winning selection. Entries, over 1,000 in all, arrived
from almost every state in the union. Athletic Director Harry Carlson,
graduate manager Walter Franklin and Kenneth Bundy of the Silver and
Gold were the judges.
Local articles first reported that Claude Bates of New Madrid, Mo.,
and James Proffitt of Cincinnati, Ohio, were co-winners for the prize
as both submitted “Buffaloes” as their entry. But 10 days later, the
newspaper declared Boulder resident Andrew Dickson the winner,
after a follow-up revealed his submission of “Buffaloes” had actually
arrived several days before those of the original winners. Through the
years, synonyms which quickly came into use included “Bisons,”
“Buffs,” “Thundering Herd,” “Stampeding Herd,” “Golden Avalanche,”
and “Golden Buffaloes.”
Live buffaloes made appearances at CU games on and off through
the years, usually in a pen on the field or sometimes driven around in
a cage; in the 1940s, the school kept a baby buffalo in a special pen at
the University Riding Academy. The first named buffalo was “Mr.
Chips,” who appeared for the first time at the 1957 CU Days kickoff
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rally, as supporter Mahlon White donated him to the school, and it was
cared for by a men’s honorary.
A few years passed between a live mascot on the sideline and the
tradition Colorado fans have come to know so well. In 1966, John
Lowery, the father of a CU freshman from Lubbock, Texas, donated to
the school a six-month old buffalo calf from Sedgewick, Colo.
For a while, she was billed as “Rraalph,” but the origin of the name
is in some doubt. Some say it was given by the student body after
sounds she allegedly made while running and snorting; others say it
was named for Ralph Jay Wallace, the junior class president at the
time; and the original handlers will tell a third version. Regardless, an
astute fan soon discovered that the buffalo was in fact a female, thus
the name alteration to Ralphie.
The initial tradition was for CU’s five sophomore class officers to
run the buffalo around the stadium in a full loop. They would pick her
up from caretaker C.D. “Buddy” Hays, who kept her at the Green
Mountain Riding Stables during the season at Hidden Valley Ranch in
the off season. The officers would run her for two hours in the morning
to tire her a bit to keep her under control by the time the game started.
At the conclusion of the run, the fans would break into the “Buffalo
Stomp,” which would literally shake the stadium in deafening fashion
as the team took the field. But CU officials soon had the tradition
stopped because of the actual physical damage it was causing.
Around that same time, head coach Eddie Crowder was
approached with the idea the charging buffalo running out on the field
before the game with the team behind right her. Crowder thought it
was a great idea, and the debut of this great tradition took place on
Oct. 28, 1967, CU’s homecoming game against Oklahoma State. Though
OSU won the game, 10-7, the tradition was here to stay, though those
who had some training in such an endeavor as working with a wild
animal eventually replaced the sophomores. The five sophomores
appointed themselves as the board of directors of a fundraising effort
to bring Ralphie to the ’67 Bluebonnet Bowl in Houston, raising the
necessary money through selling stock.
Ralphie attended every CU home football game for 13 years
(including all bowls), and retired at the end of the 1978 season. CU’s
first Ralphie achieved nationally celebrity status, and was even
kidnapped in 1970 by some Air Force Academy students as well as
being named the school’s 1971 Homecoming Queen at the height of
the anti-establishment era.
In 1976, The Bank of Boulder and its president Steve Bosley,
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proposed to Crowder they would do a fundraiser to send
Ralphie I to the Orange Bowl Game with Ohio State.
When a reporter asked Bosley how Ralphie would
travel to Miami, he explained that the information was top
secret since CU was concerned that Ohio State students
would try to kidnap (or “buffalo-nap”) Ralphie. The story
of the potential “buffalo-napping” made newspapers
nationwide, featuring a picture of Ralphie in full charge
with her handlers. The story stimulated over $25,000 in
donations. Ralphie’s trip to the Orange Bowl cost $2,500,
and the balance was put into a fund for Ralphie’s future
care.
In 1978, when Ralphie became ill, Bosley organized a
search headed by Buddy Hays, who discovered a calf
named Moon, short for Moonshine, which was owned by
Boulder native Lyn Russell Holt. Holt grew up raising
mainly domestic animals, but was an accomplished bull
rider in area rodeos who loved buffalo. Bosley, The Bank of
Boulder, and bank director Robert Confer bought
Moonshine from Holt and donated her to CU. But the name
Ralphie had become so popular that former athletic
director Eddie Crowder made it permanent.
Ralphie II made her first appearance at CU’s final home game of
the 1978 season. At age 12, after serving the Buffs for 10 years, she
passed away on Sept. 19, 1987, following a 31-17 CU win over Stanford.
Ralphie III, donated by the C-Club, was pressed into action earlier
than anticipated, as she had been in training for the 1988 season.
Originally named “Tequila,” she made her debut on Nov. 7, 1987, when
the Buffs beat Missouri, 27-10. After over 10 years of service, she
passed away in January 1998, at the age of 13.
Ralphie IV was donated to the university by media and sports
entrepreneur Ted Turner in 1998. Born in April 1997 on the Flying D
Ranch in Gallatin Gateway, Montana, which is a part of Turner
Ranches, she was named “Rowdy” by ranch hands. She was separated
from her mother when she was about a month old and was literally
found in the jaws of a coyote with bite marks around her neck. She
survived the attack and was bottle-fed by the hands for four months.
She was released back to the herd but wouldn’t bond with them, so
the ranch hands took her back in and fed her grasses and grain. It was
then that she was donated to CU as a yearling early in the spring of
1998.
Ralphies IV and V together in November 2007
John Parker, who trained and housed both Ralphie II and III and
supervised the early training of Ralphie IV, retired after 12 years of
service as caretaker in May 2000. His assistant, Ted Davis, assumed
the program duties for the next year, while long-time CU supporters
Dale and Lynn Johnson housed Ralphie for the following season.
In 2001, two former Ralphie Handlers and CU graduates, Ben Frei
and Kevin Priola, took over as volunteer directors of the program.
Together they coordinated the selection and managing of up to 15
student handlers along with all aspects of training. The overall
program was managed from 1994-2013 by Gail Pederson, the CU
Athletic Department’s Chief of Staff.
Ralphie IV made her debut against Colorado State at Mile High
Stadium in Denver on September 5, 1998. She appeared at six bowl
games and four Big 12 Championship games. In November 2007,
“Ralphie’s Salute To A New Era” was held, where Ralphie IV was semiretired and a 14-month old Ralphie V was officially introduced to the
public. Ralphie IV’s last game was the 2008 season opener, as she led
CU on to the field one last time, again versus CSU in Denver.
Ralphie V, known as “Blackout,” (she was the darkest calf in the
herd), also from a Ted Turner Ranch, the Vermejo Park Ranch in New
Mexico, was donated to the university in January 2007 as a 325-pound,
four-month old calf. She made her debut on April 19, 2008 at CU’s
annual spring game (which drew a record 17,800 spectators) and her
regular season debut five months later on Sept. 6 at Folsom Field. She
will be 10 years old this September and has reached full maturity,
weighs in at approximately 1,200 pounds and as with all buffalo, can
reach speeds up to 25 miles per hour (which she reached during her
run around Folsom Field).
The Ralphie Live Mascot Program as it is formally known is
currently under the direction of program manager John Graves,
longtime coach Ben Frei and assistant coach Taylor Stratton, all of
whom were handlers when they were CU students.
RALPHIE STATS: The five Ralphies have led the Buffaloes on to
the field for 326 games (not including spring games): 277 home games,
23 bowl games, 15 Rocky Mountain Showdowns in Denver, seven
regular season road games and four Big 12 Championship games.
NOTE: In 2016, President Obama signed into law a bill that
declared the bison as the official “National Mammal of the United
States.”
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